When the IS group declared that it was founding its own country in August of 2014, the group announced that the old borders were obsolete and that there was no more difference between Iraq and Syria in this area. Since then the Al Qaem area has become a conduit for weapons, supplies and manpower.
Last Thursday, the Sunni Muslim tribal fighters of Anbar province announced that they were launching a military operation in the border areas near them, to push the IS group out of the last remaining towns they are in. These are Anah, Rawa and Al Qaem, with the last being a particularly important stronghold for the IS group.
The tribal fighters said that the operation was coordinated by the Iraqi government and that US forces from the nearby Ain al-Asad military base, also assisted them.
“A joint force consisting of more than 2,000 fighters along with forces from the [Iraqi army’s] 7th Division, launched a surprise attackon Anah,” Omar al-Mahalawi, one of the fighters from Anbar, based in Haditha, where the operation was launched from, confirmed. “It was a secret plan and was not announced, so that the IS fighters didn’t have any time to prepare.”
Senior US military officers helped to coordinate with the operation and preparations took place at Ain al-Asad military base, al-Mahalawi noted. “The US forces gave the Iraqi army and the tribal fighters important intelligence about where the IS fighters were and their planes also provided air support. There were even US special forces troops participating,” al-Mahalawi said.
Over the past weeks, US air support had mainly been centred in western Anbar but over the past few days, the strikes have increased and have helped progress toward Anah and further down the road leading toward the border and Syria.
Comments are closed.